[Part 1] Gone With The Wind – Scarlett and Georgia

I have started the Gone With The Wind Read Along, began at September 1st. This post is my impressions about the first part of the book.

Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm…

This first sentence of the book has told many about our heroine, Scarlett O’Hara. She was the first daughter of Gerald and Ellen O’Hara. She had two younger sisters, Suellen and Carreen, which were very different from her. Scarlett had a free soul and contradict with customs and traditions at the time, that a lady should be gentle and sedate. But she only did that in front of her mother and her Mammy, just to please them.

This story took place at Georgia, southern part of United States, when men were called gentlemen if he could riding horses, drink alcohol and go to war. The girls should be caring their physical appearance and acting minor, while married women should manage the household and children. Arts and educations were not important, therefore the Wilkes were captured as a queer family for their concern about books and musics.

Beside gender, racial discriminations were not surprising at 19th century when the story went. I found that it wasn’t only about white or black people, but also determined by rich or poor. Even black slaves from wealthy families considered themselves higher than poor white families.

Scarlett O’Hara was sixteen years old. She made herself attractive in the eyes of gentlemen, almost all young gentlemen at Georgia adored her charm. But she was falling in love with Ashley Wilkes, which was very different in everything, and made their love impossible. Besides, Ashley were going to be enganged with his cousin, Melanie Hamilton. Scarlett ended up broken-hearted and married with a man she didn’t love, one of her mistakes.

This first part lead us to the 19th century lives at United States. How southern people conflicted with Yankees–that would start the civil war. It told us about social life at Georgia–including the history of O’Haras, and introduced the stubborn, naive, and spoiled Scarlett.

Let’s see how the second part goes.